1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Israel
Country - Israel
Capital - Jerusalem
Continent - Asian
Population - Approximately 8,660,000 people
Offical Language - Hebrew
Israel is a Middle Eastern country that is situated near the eastern
tip of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered to the north by Lebanon, to
the northeast by Syria, to the east and southeast by Jordan, to the
southwest by Egypt, and to the west by the Mediterranean Sea. Jerusalem
is the declared capital and seat of government, albeit this status has
not achieved widespread international recognition.
Israel is a small country with a rather varied landscape, including a
long coastal plain, highlands in the north and center, and the Negev
desert in the south. The northern terminal of the Great Rift Valley
spans the entire nation from north to south along its eastern
border.
The only Jewish nation in modern times is the State of Israel, and
the area that is now a part of that country has a long and rich history
that goes back to pre-biblical times. Before coming under the rule of
the budding Islamic caliphate in the seventh century CE, the region was
a part of the Roman Empire, then the Byzantine Empire. The area, known
at the time as Palestine, was the subject of controversy during the
Crusades, but it remained under the control of succeeding Islamic
dynasties until the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the conclusion of
World War I, at which point the League of Nations gave Britain a mandate
over the region.
1.2 Location
The country is 290 miles (470 km) long and 85 miles (135 km) wide at
its widest point, giving it a long and narrow shape. In addition to
having a wide range of distinguishing physical traits and microclimates,
Israel is divided into four distinct geographic regions: the
Mediterranean coastal plain, the hill regions of northern and central
Israel, the Great Rift Valley, and the Negev.
Despite its diminutive size, Israel contains the diverse physical
features of an entire continent, from coastal plains to the semitropical
Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth, and from
forested highlands and fertile green valleys to rugged deserts. The
semi-arid region makes up around half of the nation’s land area.
The geographical location of Israel can be further understood through
the following figure.
1.3 Climate Condition of Israel
Israel’s climate is characterized by a lot of sunshine and a rainy
season from November to April. The total annual precipitation varies
from 20-30 inches (50-70 cm) in the north to approximately an inch (2.5
cm) in the far south. The regional climate varies greatly, with hot,
humid summers and mild, wet winters on the coastal plain; dry, warm
summers and moderately cold winters with rain and sporadic light snow in
the hill regions; hot, dry summers and pleasant winters in the Jordan
Valley; and semi-arid conditions with warm to hot days and cool nights
in the south.
1.4 Main Cities of Israel
Since King David established Jerusalem as the capital of his kingdom
around three thousand years ago, Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, has
been at the center of the Jewish people’s national and spiritual life.
It is the country’s largest city today. It is a flourishing, vibrant
metropolis.
The country’s industrial, commercial, financial, and cultural
activities are centered in Tel Aviv-Yafo, which was established in 1909
as the first Jewish city in modern times.
Since ancient times, people have known Haifa as a coastal town. It is
currently a significant port on the Mediterranean and the industrial and
commercial hub of northern Israel.
The greatest urban area in the south today is Be’er Sheva, which the
Bible refers to as the patriarchs’ encampment. For the entire southern
region, it offers administrative, economic, health, educational, and
cultural services.
1.5 COVID-19 pandemic in Israel
The COVID-19 pandemic in Israel is part of the worldwide pandemic of
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2. Israel’s first COVID-19 case was identified on
February 21, 2020, when a female citizen tested positive for COVID-19 at
the Sheba Medical Center after return from quarantine on the Diamond
Princess ship in Japan. On 23 February, a second former Diamond Princess
passenger tested positive, and was admitted to a hospital for isolation.
The total number of confirmed cases increased to 1,000 within about 30
days, with a doubling time of less than 3 days.
1.6 Lockdown status and actions taken by the government
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed a national state of
emergency on March 19. Israeli citizens were prohibited from leaving
their homes unless it was absolutely essential.
The government ordered a two-week self-isolation for all
visitors, and non-residents and non-citizens who had spent 14 days in
South Korea prior to arriving were prohibited. Also, the government
ordered the closure of all schools and universities and the partial
switch to distance learning.
All non-essential businesses were required to close.
Additionally, employees were required to increase social distance
between their coworkers and, if possible, allow them to work from home,
while people’s ability to move around outside of their homes was
severely constrained.
On April 1, the government intended to impose stricter cautious
measures on its inhabitants, including a ban on all public meetings,
including prayer quorums of 10 men, a restriction on household outings
to two individuals, and a requirement that they constantly wear face
masks in public. Every Israeli citizen must now cover their lips and
nose when leaving their houses as of April 12. Children under the age of
six, persons with emotional, mental, or medical issues that would
prevent them from wearing a mask, drivers in their automobiles, people
by themselves in a building, and frequent coworkers as long as they keep
social distance are the only exceptions.
On July 1, the Knesset reauthorized ISA mobile phone tracking of
infected individuals by enacting the Law to Authorize the ISA to Assist
in the National Effort to Contain the Spread of the Novel Coronavirus.
On 6 July 2020, following over two weeks of continued increase in the
number of new daily cases, Netanyahu announced new social distancing
guidelines, approved by the government.
In December 2020, the number of cases had risen consistently to
over 3,000 per day with a test positivity rate of over 5%. A number of
nations reported the emergence of new, more contagious COVID-19 strains;
around the end of December, Israel reported its first cases of the Alpha
variety. In January 2021, the Beta variant’s first instances were found.
On 24 December 2020, the government declared a third nationwide
lockdown, to begin on 27 December 2020.
Israel reached a vaccination rate of above 50% after the national
immunization campaign from late December to April 2021, and 9% of the
population recovered from COVID-19, leading to a decrease in new cases
and fatalities. The first cases of the Delta variant were found in
Israel in April 2021. The first case of the Gamma variant was also
discovered in May 2021.
On 25 June 2021, the requirement for mask indoors was
reinstituted due to the rise in cases. On 29 July 2021, the green pass
requirement was reinstituted for indoor events with 100 or more
participants.
On 29 July 2021, a third vaccination was approved for persons
aged 60 or older due to observed waning efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine
to the prevalent Delta variant. The vaccine booster was later approved
for all those 12 and older.
On 8 August 2021, restrictions renewed by the government came
into effect to slow the spread of the Delta variant and included
expanding proof of vaccine and mask-wearing requirements for some
gatherings, and a shift back to more work from home, quarantines, and
travel restrictions.
Israel stopped allowing visitors on November 28, 2021. Israel
also provided a list of “red” nations where Israelis were not permitted
to travel and began offering a 4th dose of the Pfizer vaccine to those
60 or older on 2 January 2022.
2. EXPLORATARY DATA
ANALYSIS
2.1 COVID-19 Statistics of Israel
## date province country lat
## Min. :2020-01-22 Length:2652 Length:2652 Min. :31.05
## 1st Qu.:2020-08-29 Class :character Class :character 1st Qu.:31.05
## Median :2021-04-07 Mode :character Mode :character Median :31.05
## Mean :2021-04-07 Mean :31.05
## 3rd Qu.:2021-11-14 3rd Qu.:31.05
## Max. :2022-06-23 Max. :31.05
## long type cases uid
## Min. :34.85 Length:2652 Min. : 0 Min. :376
## 1st Qu.:34.85 Class :character 1st Qu.: 1 1st Qu.:376
## Median :34.85 Mode :character Median : 32 Median :376
## Mean :34.85 Mean : 2262 Mean :376
## 3rd Qu.:34.85 3rd Qu.: 1144 3rd Qu.:376
## Max. :34.85 Max. :854888 Max. :376
## iso2 iso3 code3 combined_key
## Length:2652 Length:2652 Min. :376 Length:2652
## Class :character Class :character 1st Qu.:376 Class :character
## Mode :character Mode :character Median :376 Mode :character
## Mean :376
## 3rd Qu.:376
## Max. :376
## population continent_name continent_code
## Min. :8655541 Length:2652 Length:2652
## 1st Qu.:8655541 Class :character Class :character
## Median :8655541 Mode :character Mode :character
## Mean :8655541
## 3rd Qu.:8655541
## Max. :8655541
Israel Daily Confirmed Covid-19 Cases
We can clearly see the rise caused by the second Covid wave by which
Israel was hit mid of September 2020. There is drastic rise can be seen
in 2021 in the month of January, and 2021 in the month of September.
When the 2022 comes to begin, in January the highest confirmed covid
case rate was measured.
Israel Daily Recovered Covid-19 Cases
When the vaccination programs are being continuously executed, we can
see the rise of recovered cases respectively. In 2020 in the month of
October, there is a rise of recovered cases. It is approximately 7700
patients. Though the month of January in 2021 Israel managed to come
with the highest number of recovered cases.
Israel Daily Death Covid-19 Cases
The truth that is readily evident in this situation is that since the
threat was new, it was difficult for the country to manage and find
remedies. But as they moved forward, they were able to reduce the risk
in a respectable way. Israel was able to keep the death toll relatively
low despite the increase in the number of confirmed cases.
Israel Total Active Covid-19 Cases
According to figure 5, the number of active cases are rise. Again,
the exponential increase is observed from the middle of year 2021
onwards. Clearly, we can see that beginning of year 2022, active cases
are rapidly increasing.
2.2 Local Comparison
This section explores the statistics available for confirmed,
recovered, and death covid-19 cases. Here, we have compared the cases
between confirmed and death as well as the cases between death and
recovered. Finally, we plotted all of the confirmed, recovered, and
death cases on a single graph.
Comparison between confirmed and deaths
Here, we can see that the number of deaths is significantly lower
than the number of confirmed cases in Israel. It seems most of the
Covid-19 patients have recovered. The reason for that seems to be
vaccination programs and government actions.
Comparison between death and recovered
According to figure 7, it shows that recovered cases are higher than
the death cases. It must be because of the medical treatment, medical
facilities and medical officers in Israel.
Confirmed, Recovered and Death Cases in Israel
All the confirmed, recovered and death cases can interpret using one
single plot. Here, we can see that after beginning of the year 2022, the
daily confirmed cases are highly getting increased. Even confirmed cases
are high, their death cases remain at a low level. That is because, the
recovered amount has increased slightly day by day.
2.3 Comparison with other countries
This section explores the statistics available for Israel with other
countries. The countries used for the comparison procedure are Jordan,
Iran, Syria. These countries are used for the comparison because, all
those countries are within the middle Eastern region along with Israel
and furthermore are considered to be neighboring countries of Israel as
well.
Confirmed Cases
From figure 9 it is evident that the number of daily confirmed cases
for Israel is less than Iran but is greater than Syria from beginning of
2020 to end of 2021. Thus, according to the graph, the number of
confirmed cases seem to be on the rise for all these four countries in
2022.
Recovered Cases
The daily recoveries for Israel and Jordan seem to be quite similar
while the number of daily recoveries for Iran shows a significant
increase during the year of 2021. Again, when comparing with the Iran,
the figure of Syria seem very insignificant. However, this does not mean
that the figure of Syria should be ignored. Due to the large scale
spread within the Iran the figure of Syria may seem insignificant.
Death Cases
Figure 11 clearly displays an increase in the number of death cases
for Iran. However, the number of death cases within Syria seems to
reduce when compared to Israel and Jordan.
3. DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUSIONS
3.1 Conclusions
The first human cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel
coronavirus causing COVID-19, subsequently named SARS-CoV-2 were first
reported by officials in Wuhan City, China, in December 2019.
Investigations by Chinese authorities have identified human cases with
onset of symptoms in early December 2019. Later it began to spread all
over the world affecting 213 countries and territories around the world
and 2 international conveyances.
Israel’s first COVID-19 case was identified on February 21, 2020,
when a female citizen tested positive for COVID-19 at the Sheba Medical
Center after return from quarantine on the Diamond Princess ship in
Japan. Later it began to spread all over the country and the total
number of confirmed cases increased to 1,000 within about 30 days, with
a doubling time of less than 3 days. Then Israel government took
necessary actions to stop the spread of covid 19 virus.
Looking over to the actions taken by the Israel government it is
evident that they were taking all the necessary actions to mitigate the
situation. But several collapses and wrong decisions taken during the
time when corona virus was likely to settle down lead to a drastic
increase of active cases. The vaccination program has been able to
mitigate the risk by a massive amount. In order to handle the
vaccination program efficiently all the health sector works were given
prior to native citizens. Though the plotted statistics still indicates
an increasing move of active cases, Government has been successfully
able to reduce the amount of death cause by Covid-19. Comparing to the
other countries selected in the analysis Israel has failed to manage its
daily-confirmed Covid cases rate. It might be because of the lack of
support given by the people.
3.2 Discussion
Based on information from the coronavirus package, this report has
been written. For the comparison part Jordan, Iran, and Syria were
selected.
During the analysis process it was found that there was a negative
value for recovered cases of Israel. Normally negative cases can occur
when there is a change in the counting methodology or data resource,
updating new cases or due to errors in the raw data. So, when
considering recovered cases it was replaced with zero, so it will
satisfy positivity and discrete nature of the number of counts
(>0)
The active cases were calculated by taking the summation of each day
with the previous one. Therefore, negative cases could occur when there
is a drop in the cumulative number of cases with respect to the previous
day. As the negative values replace with zero it avoids output of
fraction values.
4. REFERENCES